1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of phase delays, and more particularly to variable phase delays.
2. Description of the Related Art
Delay lines such as phase delays are used for a wide variety of signal processing applications. For example, broadband phase delay circuits are used in beam-forming applications in phased array antennas. Typical fixed geometry phase delay circuits used in phased array antennas are comprised of switched lengths of transmission line. Despite the importance of broadband delay lines in such systems, the conventional approach to designing and implementing these components suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, conventional delay line devices often require a relatively large number of RF switches that can result in signal losses. Also, conventional phase delay circuits can be limited with regard to the delay resolution that can be achieved.
RF delay lines are often formed as ordinary transmission lines coupled to a dielectric. Depending upon the structure of the transmission line, the dielectric can be arranged in different ways. For example, microstrip and stripline circuits commonly are formed on a dielectric substrate. Two important characteristics of dielectric materials are permittivity (sometimes called the relative permittivity or ∈r) and permeability (sometimes referred to as relative permeability or μr). The relative permittivity and permeability determine the propagation velocity of a signal, which is approximately inversely proportional to √{square root over (μ∈)}. The propagation velocity directly affects the electrical length of a transmission line and therefore the amount of delay introduced to signals that traverse the line.
Further, ignoring loss, the characteristic impedance of a transmission line, such as stripline or microstrip, is equal to √{square root over (Ll/Cl)} where Ll is the inductance per unit length and Cl is the capacitance per unit length. The values of Ll and Cl are generally determined by the permittivity and the permeability of the dielectric material(s) used to separate the transmission line structures as well as the physical geometry and spacing of the line structures. For a given geometry, an increase in dielectric permittivity or permeability necessary for providing increased phase delay will generally cause the characteristic impedance of the line to change. However, this is not a problem where only a fixed delay is needed, since the geometry of the transmission line can be readily designed and fabricated to achieve the proper characteristic impedance.
When a phase delay is needed, however, such techniques have traditionally been viewed as impractical because of the obvious difficulties in dynamically varying the permittivity and/or permeability of a dielectric board substrate material and/or dynamically varying transmission line geometries. Variable length lines have been implemented using mechanical means to vary the length of a line. These generally have involved an arrangement of telescoping tubes to produce a variable length coaxial line. These devices were at one time commonly used in laboratories for tuning circuits. However, these arrangements suffered from certain drawbacks. For example, they were subject to wear, difficult to control electronically, and are not easily scalable to microwave frequencies. Accordingly, the solution has been to design phase delay lines using conventional fixed length RF transmission lines with delay variability achieved using a series of electronically controlled switches.
Ferroelectric materials are also sometimes used to implement compact phase delays for various applications. The phase delay can be implemented by applying a bias electric field to the ferroelectric material, which changes the permittivity of the material. The use of ferroelectric material in the microwave frequency range has been limited, however, due to high losses associated with these materials and due to the high electric field necessary to bias the structure in order to obtain substantial permittivity change.
A microwave phase shifter is a device that can be used for varying phase in the microwave frequency range. The microwave phase shifter is a thin-film ferroelectric/ferrite device. A microwave phase shifter can be tuned by varying both electric and magnetic fields. For instance, the propagation velocity of electromagnetic waves in the microwave phase shifter can be varied by applying an electric field to vary the permittivity of the ferroelectric layer and/or varying an applied magnetic field to vary the permeability of the ferrite layer. In operation, the microwave phase shifter is limited to a phase shift of about 300°. Moreover, a magnetic field of greater than 800 Gauss is required to achieve this phase shift. Such a magnetic field can interfere with the operation of other circuit devices that are proximate to the microwave phase shifter. Further, the microwave phase shifter is not suitable for use in monolithic microwave integrated circuits.